ePassporte Shutting Down According to Online Poker Community

Throughout the day and night Friday, the online poker community feared the worst as a popular payment solution, and one of the few still catering to US customers, went down for much of the day.  ePassporte had been telling some merchants they were having "technical issues". 

Cake Poker and a few other online poker merchants advised their clients, however, that ePassporte would no longer be servicing US customers.

To all Cake Poker Customers:

We have received notice from ePassporte today that they are unable to continue to provide CakePoker with merchant e-wallet services. We have since confirmed that this situation is not unique to CakePoker and is, in fact, industry wide. 

Other reports have indicated that the ePassporte issue may be "worldwide" and not just isolated to the US market.  The payment solutions company is based out of the United States.

By Saturday morning, some customers on the TwoPlusTwo Poker Forum posted that they could now withdraw monies using their ePassporte ATM.  How long that lasts remains to be seen. 

In a letter obtained by Gambling911.com, the payment solutions company advised other merchants that "a widespread investigation of Internet gambling, including poker" by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Southern New York and customer issues would be dealt with by ePassporte.

A number of online poker rooms have relied heavily on ePassporte over the last year after the industry's largest payment solutions firm, Neteller, was forced to exit the US online poker market.

"The issues surrounding ePassporte have long been addressed by sites like Gambling911.com," expressed Payton O'Brien, Senior Editor of G911.  "It really was only a matter of time before something would happen."  (read more here)

Over the past year, online gambling websites have been hurt internally by processors who have shut down without warning.  These solutions were used mostly for issuing checks whereby ePassporte - like Neteller - acts as an eWallet that can be accessed directly by the gambling public. 

The good news for online poker players is that major i-gaming operators have had some time to implement "more reliable" solutions. 

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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com

Originally published April 12, 2008 11:11 am EST